Perspectives on Semantic Representations for Textual Inference

Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 1999

The integration of lexical semantics and pragmatics in the analysis of the meaning of natural language has prompted changes to the global framework derived from Montague. In those works, the original lexicon, in which words were assigned an atomic type of a single-sorted logic, has been replaced by a set of many-facetted lexical items that can compose their meaning with salient contextual properties using a rich typing system as a guide. Having related our proposal for such an expanded framework ΛTY n , we present some recent advances in the logical formalisms associated, including constraints on lexical transformations and polymorphic quantifiers, and ongoing discussions and research on the granularity of the type system and the limits of transitivity.

2016

The aim of this symposium is to explore the notion of hyperintensionality. This notion is anchored to foundational research in philosophical logic. One example is formal semantics and its research into linguistic meaning, synonymy, reference, and expressive power. Another example is attitude logic and its research into closure principles, illogical attitudes, omniscience, and the flow of information. The intention behind the symposium is to highlight the different reasons for opting for a hyperintensional framework in one’s semantic, logical or philosophical pursuits and not least the different forms hyperintensional frameworks may assume. Description of the symposium The aim of this symposium is to explore the notion of hyperintensionality. This notion is anchored to foundational research in philosophical logic. One example is formal semantics and its research into topics like linguistic meaning, synonymy, reference, and expressive power. Another example is attitude logic and its r...

2010

This volume sets out the foundations of Transparent Intensional Logic, together with many applications to a wide range of topics including formal semantics, philosophy of language, and philosophical logic. Special attention is devoted to some topics that generally tend to be dealt with only in passing. They include, inter alia, notional attitudes, knowing whether, concepts (understood rigorously and non-mentalistically), attitudes de re, and anaphora in hyperintensional contexts. he overall programme is set out and placed in historical and systematic context. The programme consists in devising one overarching semantic theory for all sorts of discourse, whether colloquial, scientific, mathematical or logical. The semantic theory is a procedural one, according to which sense is an abstract, pre-linguistic procedure detailing what operations to apply to what procedural constituents to arrive at the product (if any) of the procedure. Such procedures are rigorously defined as so-called constructions residing in a platonic realm. The semantics is tailored to the hardest case, as constituted by hyperintensional contexts, and generalized from there to intensional and extensional contexts. This anti-contextualist and fully compositional semantics is, to the best of our knowledge, the only one that deals with all kinds of context in a unique and systematic manner. The three authors have striven to write an accessible study of Transparent Intensional Logic that may be read by researchers and advanced students of logic, semantics, linguistics, informatics, computer science, and kindred disciplines.

Proceedings of the 20th annual meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics -, 1982

We argue that because the very concept of computation rests on notions of interpretation, the semantics of natural languages and the semantics of computational formalisms are in the deepest sense the same subject. The attempt to use computational formalisms in aid of an explanation of natural language semantics, therefore, is an enterprise that must be undertaken with particular care. We describe a framework for semantical analysis that we have used in the computational realm, and suggest that it may serve to underwrite computadonally-oriented linguistic ser.antics as well. The major feature of this framework is the explicit recognition of both the declarative and the procedural import of meaningful expressions; we argue that whereas these two viewpoints have traditionally been taken as alternative, any comprehensive semantical theory must account for how both aspects of an expression contribute to its overall significance.

Oxford University Press eBooks, 2016

This chapter presents the semantics and pragmatics of prosodic focus in alternative semantics. Half a dozen examples are given of empirical phenomena that are to be covered by the theory. Then a syntax marking the locus, scope, and antecedent for focus is introduced. The syntax is interpreted semantically and pragmatically by a presupposition involving alternatives. The alternative sets that are used in the definition are computed compositionally using a recursive definition. Alternatives are also employed in the semantics of questions, and this ties in with the phenomenon of questionanswer congruence, where the position of focus in an answer matches questioned positions in the question. A different semantic interpretation for focus is entailment semantics, which uses a generalized entailment condition in place of a condition involving alternatives. The semantic and pragmatic interpretation for contrastive topic uses an additional layer of alternatives. Independent of focus, alternatives are deployed in the semantics of disjunction and of negative polarity items.

Proceedings of the 26th annual meeting …, 1988

We propose that logic (enhanced to encode probability information) is a good way of characterizing semantic in-terpretation. In support of this we give a fragment of an axiomatization for word-sense disambiguation, noun-phrase (and verb) reference, and case ...

Synthese

Theories of structured meanings are designed to generate fine-grained meanings, but they are also liable to overgenerate structures, thus drawing structural distinctions without a semantic difference. I recommend the proliferation of very fine-grained structures, so that we are able to draw any semantic distinctions we think we might need. But, in order to contain overgeneration, I argue we should insert some degree of individuation between logical equivalence and structural identity based on structural isomorphism. The idea amounts to forming an equivalence class of different structures according to one or more formal criteria and designating a privileged element as a representative of all the elements, i.e., a first among equals. The proposed method helps us to a cluster of notions of co-hyperintensionality. As a test case, I consider a recent objection levelled against the act theory of structured propositions. I also respond to an objection against my methodology.

Proceedings of the 24th annual meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics -, 1986

Ambiguities related to intension and their consequent inference failures are a diverse group, both syntactically and semantically. One particular kind of ambiguity that has received little attention so far is whether it is the speaker or the third party to whom a description in an opaque third-party attitude report should be attributed. The different readings lead to different inferences in a system modeling the beliefs of external agents. We propose that a unified approach to the representation of the alternative readings of intension-related ambiguities can be based on the notion of a descriptor that is evaluated with respect to intensionality, the beliefs of agents, and a time of application. We describe such a representation, built on a standard modal logic, and show how it may be used in conjunction with a knowledge base of background assumptions to license restricted substitution of equals in opaque contexts.